HERE Maps Review

In the wake of Apple’s iOS 6 Maps fiasco, competitors have smugly reminded Cupertino that creating a mapping solution from the ground up is much harder than it looks. One of the most vocal was Nokia, which recently made its iOS debut with an HTML5-powered maps app of its own, which many hope will tide them over until Apple fixes its built-in option. HERE Maps is powered by NAVTEQ mapping data, which Nokia trumpets as a “world-class” product used in 90 percent of in-car navigation systems worldwide. While that may be true, I found it little more accurate or helpful than iOS 6 Maps, despite HERE covering more than 200 countries, many enhanced with user-published community maps.

Beauty may not be everything, but Apple runs circles around HERE Maps in the looks department: Nokia’s maps are entirely too small, blurry, and downright ugly by comparison. HERE also commits the cardinal sin of providing nothing in the way of voice-guided, turn-by-turn driving navigation, offering little more than was already available with iOS 5. A man with a haughty-sounding British accent does provide voice-guided walking directions, which do a serviceable enough job when the map data is good. Directions can be viewed as a map or in satellite or list view, but voice guidance doesn’t work when the screen is unlocked -- a surefire way to burn through the battery before you even arrive at your destination.

While Nokia’s heart is in the right place with HERE Maps, our initial suspicions about its choice to power the free, universal app with HTML5 have now been confirmed. Despite the admirable job of masking the app’s web-based roots, there’s no real advantage to installing the app when the browser-based version works almost the same on Mobile Safari.

The bottom line. Nokia has been doing maps a long time, and it shows with the company's capable Windows Phone app. But a true Nokia Maps this is not, making it all the more baffling why it would rush out this HTML5-powered turkey. Apple’s built-in Maps app may have its faults, but it can hold its head high in any competition with HERE Maps.